Comte de Chambord!!! A Portland rose. Always covered in blooms, powerful perfume, showy pink color. A super performer by all standards. But needs BS protection. Another Portland and solid performer, also in the scent dept: Jacques Cartier. Extremely healthy. Also good: Sophie's Perpetual, a hybrid China with a strong and deliciously sweet scent. The classic Bourbon and most beautiful of them all: Souvenir de la Malmaison, blooms very well when well fed and positioned. Nice powdery scent. Get a grafted one from Pickering for better vigor. Only caveat: balls in the rain and high humidity, just like the Comte btw. Nonetheless, this one should be on top of your list, together with the Comte. Many Teas are pretty good rebloomers too. My Rose de Reschts were ok in the rebloom department, but not great, every 6 weeks or so, no match for the others above (or most of my roses for that matter). Very strong old rose perfume though and strikingly colored (fuchsia) if very small blooms. But again, would not be among my first picks. Andrea

We've grown about a dozen different Austin roses and the best for rebloom, strength of scent, and large blooms are: 1. "Tamora" one of my favorite Austins, creamy peach. 2. "Mary Rose" damask rose scent, medium pink, scalloped petal edges gives it a ruffly appearance. "Mary Rose" blooms 3 to 4 weeks earlier in spring than does our "Heritage", is healthier, and produces more flushes each year. "Mayflower" was very healthy but not as pretty as Mary Rose, and has moved to a friends' garden. 3.Pink "Gertrude Jekyll", to my nose, has the best fragrance of any Austin. Deep rich Damask rose scent. Healthy plant. Lux. P.S. "Comte de Chambord" an old garden rose, repeats more than any of our Austins, is healthier, and is very fragrant, of damask rose.

I had Comice de Tarn-et-Garonne and it was a pretty and fragrant rose but I soon realized this was going to be one of those large and lanky Bourbons that spread all over the place, which made it unsuitable for its spot or really anywhere else in the garden. Not a spectacular rose by my standards, but it left before it was mature so it's possible the blooms with age would have become larger and more outstanding. I have Madame Dore and in a number of years it's never grown taller than barely two feet. It's the shortest Bourbon I have but the flowers are quite lovely. It's had some issues with blackspot which I think it caught from Burgundy Iceberg. Ingrid

Sharon: Thanks to your rose list, I remember how impressive that Easy Elegance which I bought at HomeDepot ... there was more blooms than leaves. The pot had large chunk composted pine-bark mixed with soil, well-drained. It also had Osmocote-like blue round tiny pellets mixed in. I suspect those blue-round-pellets have acid (sulfur) to neutralize alkaline tap. I once did a research on trace elements in chemical fertilizers, and Osmocote was the only one THAT DID NOT RESULT IN ANY NUTRIENT DEFICIENCY whatsoever. I didn't recommend Osmocote, since those brown granules didn't work on my herbs in pots. However, that type was discontinued, and there's improved formula in the Osmocote for flowers, NPK 14-14-14, it has a perfect rating on Amazon, can't find a negative review. I tested many chemicals vs. organics in pots. Organics work best for the ground, given microorganism and earthworms to break it down. Chemicals isn't best for clay soil, which retains salt well. Chemicals is instant-food, and work immediately in pots, or well-drained loamy soil. The danger of chemicals is salt-accumulation in pots, esp. with soluble fertilizer. After seeing those blue-round slow-released granules, and tons of blooms on Easy Elegance "Grandma's Blesisng" in a pot ... I'm sold on such, if I can find it. I'm going to test the perfect-rating Oscomote and compare that with organics for pots. I still remember how Sonia Rykiel gave me 15 blooms in a pot, fertilized with MG soluble, plus organics (alfalfa mixed in potting soil). The question is: Are oscomote pH-dependent? Does it require neutral tap, or acidic rain water to break down? The old brown Oscomote that was discontinued, it could not even dissolve in rain water !! I gave MG-soluble to Frederic Mistral in the ground, and he was still stingy. But when I brought the pH of my tap water down with sulfate of potash, plus trace elements in molasses, I got 40+ buds/blooms. My tap water is so alkaline, that MG soluble crystallized at the bottom ... It worked only when I put used lemon to help it dissolve. Below is Liv Tyler in my pH 7.7 clay, mulched with cocoa mulch at pH 5.4, plus horse manure (pH 8), and with rain water (pH 6):